Dragon arrived at the terminal with the sole purpose of rescuing the survivors. What he didn't foresee was a woman with fire wings instead of arms, eradicating the blaze. She alone created a safe path to the forest, which people used to evacuate.
He looked at her more closely, realizing who the person in front of him was someone who wasn't supposed to be alive.
"Tomorrow morning the nobles will send guards to eradicate the survivors," he said. All his followers understood immediately.
Some time earlier.
Dadan was having one of the calmest days of her entire life. Which, instead of making her happy, made her paranoid.
Nobody was bothering her. Those devilish brats hardly even showed up anymore. That's why she had sent Dogra along with some of her men to keep an eye on them for the past month. She took a sip of her beer only to spit it out upon seeing Dogra and the others shouting.
"Don't kill us!" Hearing them beg like that only made her think about doing exactly that.
"Idiots, look what you caused! You ruined my beer, and for what? What's so important? Shouldn't you be watching the brats?" Dadan yelled.
"That's the problem, boss!" One of Dogra's helpers spoke. "We were doing our job. But suddenly everything got out of control. Those brats play in the most dangerous places in the forest. This caused us to end up at a cliff. But not just any cliff, the deepest one on the whole island. We don't even know how we survived!".
She should have assumed her men couldn't keep up with those little devils.
"At least you went back to your duty after you got out, right?" She asked. By this point, they were already peeing themselves from fear.
This prompted Dogra to intervene, "See, boss. We just came from there..." Just those words were enough for hell to break loose in the cabin.
The four faced all sorts of situations trying to survive, from eating insects to animals that fell towards the cliff, only to end up getting beaten by their boss. But who could blame her? She was worried. Nobody was looking after her brats now that they weren't coming back to sleep at her place.
Everyone thinks she doesn't care if they're alive or not, but that would be like saying Garp is an angel in person. Speaking of Garp, they should check to see if the kids are still alive. If they turned up dead, she didn't even want to imagine what Garp would do to them.
Thus began the mission to spy on the demon brats.
"Understood, you bunch of useless fools?!" She yelled at them while showing them a paper where she detailed what they had to do.
A perfect plan. They just have to check on the brats at the three most important times of the day. That way, her dumb subordinates wouldn't die from not being able to keep up with the brats.
"Of course, boss!"
The next day, Dogra and his team arrived at the tree house at the time the kids were supposed to return from hunting. But when they arrived, the kids were already eating food that indicated they hadn't gone hunting.
Pancakes.
What the heck? And where did that wooden table come from? They even had glasses of milk!.
As expected, they reported their discovery to their boss.
"I want you to be more alert to any other detail like this," Dadan ordered sternly.
Pancakes? The real problem wasn't the pancakes, but who made them. It was obvious that her brats didn't make them. This could only mean that someone else was with her little devils.
The next time her lackeys came to report on the brats, it took her a while to process what they told her. Magra said they got lost in the forest. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Except that, according to them, the trees seemed to move around. As if someone wanted them to get lost on purpose.
Magra was sure of what he had seen. It was impossible to keep up with the kids. "Listen carefully, from now on, you will go with reinforcements! We don't know what we're facing!"
At night, Magra and Dogra were outside the tree house. Everything was going normally until they started hearing a woman's singing. The voice came from the tree house, so they carefully climbed up to see who it was. What they found was a black-haired woman, so beautiful that the blue rose in her hair couldn't compete. And that beautiful woman was singing a lullaby to the little devils.
Her singing was so enchanting that even they were captivated. "Who are you?! Perverts?!" The woman yelled.
Damn, they had been discovered!
Before a fight could start, Ace intervened, "What are you two doing here?!". The boy looked back at his mom and said between yawns, "I know them, they're not dangerous."
The two of them never thought they would be so happy to see Ace, as they were now.
Some time later, Magra and Dogra returned to the cabin where Dadan was waiting for them. To her surprise, her subordinates hadn't returned alone.
They brought a stranger with them.
"And who is this?" Dadan asked.
The woman smiled.
"It's a pleasure to meet the infamous Dadan. Did you know that Ace speaks very poorly of you?" She laughed softly. "Well, it's obvious you knew that already. I am Palila, and it would be a pleasure to talk with you."
It was one of the most interesting conversations she'd had in a long time. Not every day does someone arrive claiming to be the new mother figure for your brats. She may not be a mother to them, but they were still hers, and she wouldn't give them to just anyone.
"What do you want from my brats? If it's money, I assure you it won't get you anywhere," she asked in a serious tone.
Palila smiled at that, "If I wanted money, I would have handed Ace over to the Marines a long time ago."
Dadan was surprised by Palila's words. Ace didn't tell just anyone about his heritage. He must trust her a lot for that.
"So he told you about Roger, huh?" she said after a long silence. Palila's smile widened at her conclusion.
"Ace isn't very good with words, but I am. That's why I came to thank you for taking care of him, Miss Dadan," Palila confessed.
Miss? That was new.
"You know, Roger was a friend of mine." Palila began. "He was someone with great ambition, with dreams so big that people called them childish. One of those dreams was to turn the world upside down." Palila paused for a moment, observing Dadan's reaction. "And when he did, the government was furious. Although I'm sure if he were around to see it, he would laugh. That's the kind of man he was."
Dadan nodded as she took a long sip of her beer. "I asked the person who entrusted Ace to me. Why are you doing all this for that kid? His response was that nobody deserves to pay for the crimes of their parents," Dadan said before taking another swig of her drink.
"But Ace doesn't see it.." Dadan couldn't even finish the sentence. "Like that, right?" Palila responded. This time she took a sip of beer.
"I knew someone like Ace. Maybe that's what drew me to want to know that group of brothers better. When I saw his eyes, all I saw was that boy the world called a monster." Palila confessed.
Dadan gave her a look of understanding.
"I know from the kids that you haven't been the best caretaker..." Palila said and Dadan wouldn't deny it.
"But let me tell you that I'm impressed, you did more than could be expected from a bandit. Do you think I didn't notice?" Palila smiled. "You sent your subordinates to spy on us because you care, right?"
"So what if I did?" Dadan tried to act like she didn't care, though it was in vain.
"I like you," Palila added with a smile.
"I like you too," Dadan replied.
"The kids are sleeping in the tree house on their own. But there's nothing to worry about. As long as they don't leave the mountain, they'll be fine." Dadan looked at her with a curious gaze. "And how can you be so sure of that?" Dadan asked.
"Because I am nature." Palila smiled.
The two women continued drinking cheerfully until a bandit who had been in Fusha Village returned in a panic.
"Boss, it's an emergency!" the man shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. "The terminal is on fire! It could spread to the forest!" At this, Palila stood up.
"I'm going with you, they're my brats too," Dadan said before she could leave on her own. The two of them headed to the tree house.
Once they arrived, Luffy was awakened by his mom, who gently moved him to wake him up.
"Luffy, wake up," she asked, as he let out a soft yawn. "No..." Luffy said half awake while his mom took him in her arms.
"Ace, Sabo, wake up!" Palila now tried to wake the other two. Sabo woke up first.
"Can you help me wake your brothers? We have to go," Sabo was half-disoriented from just waking up. Still, he managed to grasp the order.
"Let me sleep, idiot," Ace tried to go back to sleep, but Sabo threw a pillow straight at his face. "Alright, I'm getting up!".
Sabo, who was now more conscious, noticed a certain smell that led him to climb to the top of the house. There, he saw the fire.
Palila quickly got them out of the treehouse.
"What are they doing here?" Ace, now fully awake, asked upon seeing the bandits.
"Listen, kids, the rest of the bandits have evacuated to Fusha Village. The terminal is on fire, and the flames could spread to the forest. It's not safe to be here…" Palila explained as quickly and clearly as she could.
"But why? Mommy says the forest is always safe," a sleepy Luffy commented, which made Palila hug him even tighter.
"I can't keep you all safe while trying to put out the fire…" Palila said, as Luffy nodded in agreement.
"Dadan, can you do me a favor?" Palila asked, as she passed Ace and Sabo into her arms, much to their surprise. "You don't need to ask! They were my responsibility first!" Dadan said knowing exactly what she wanted. At the affirmation, Palila also handed her Luffy, who settled on her neck like a monkey.
"Dadan will keep you safe enough to give me peace of mind, so I can do what I can to help the people at the terminal." She gave a kiss on the forehead to the three boys.
"There's nothing to worry about, remember? A little fire won't kill me," Palila said as Ace reached out his hand.
"Alright. But promise you'll come back," Ace had never sounded so scared in his life. He knew she was strong, but the child in him couldn't shake the fear of losing a mother again.
"I promise," she took his hand and with determination promised to return.
Palila soon arrived at the terminal. All around, she could feel the lives of hundreds fading. "There's no time to lose," she thought as her arms transformed into wings, which she used to create an escape route to the forest with a great gust of wind. "You don't need to know me, just follow this path and you'll live!" she shouted, catching the attention of the people at the terminal. Seeing the path, they swarmed towards it like sardines.
As soon as everyone escaped, Palila soared into the sky. From the air itself, she drew water, which she used to extinguish the fire. A mysterious power she had.
What she didn't know were two things. The first was that from a distance, Monkey D. Dragon watched her put out the fire. And the last was the wrath of a world noble.